`Dynasty` Duo Strikes Out

Coming-of-age Cliches Clutter `When We Were Young`

July 17, 1989|By Rick Kogan, TV/radio critic.

There are few memories sweeter or more durable than those surrounding high school graduation. It`s a time when life looks impossibly full and rich. This familiar ground is the setting for ``When We Were Young,`` which is being trumpeted loudly as Richard and Esther Shapiro`s first project for NBC.

The Shapiros are the creators of ``Dynasty`` and ``The Colbys,`` and that, while not quite explaining NBC`s euphoria, certainly will give you a few clues about the soap opera ambiance of this two-hour movie and the vast number of cliches that litter it.

``When We Were Young`` (8 p.m. Monday, NBC-Ch. 5) is set in a northern California town. The year is 1959, a blatant choice, for it allows allusions to such upcoming social tumult as the feminist and civil rights movements, antinuclear activism and Vietnam.

The action follows a small if tightly knit group of high school seniors from graduation night through a year of ``adult`` life. They are a hopelessly hackneyed bunch: Paige Farrell, the ravishing debutante; Michael Stefanos, her hunky boyfriend; Alex Twining, the chronically horny nerd; Ben Kirkland, the socially committed intellectual; Linda Rosen, the tramp; Ellen Reese, the plain Jane; Virgil Hawkins, the black man with shady friends.

Add to this mix an adult: Paige`s unscrupulous father, businessman Matthew Farrell, who, unhappy that his daughter is dating a garage mechanic, does his best to scuttle the romance.

A great deal, I suppose, takes place during this two hours: Paige and Michael split up; she marries Lee, a conservative blueblood; Michael has a fling with Ellen, who is going to commit some corporate crimes for him; Linda is working as a waitress in a sad cafe; Ben, Alex and Virgil are headed for freedom marches. There is more, but all of it is so familiar that watching it is like reading yesterday`s newspaper.

What one takes away from this film are some memorable lines.

After two classmates have been killed in a car crash as they were eloping to Reno, one of the youngsters philosophizes: ``It doesn`t matter how long life is, it`s how beautiful it is.``

Even better is this, which takes place at Paige`s bedroom window as Ben, always in love with Paige, is told that he is not ready for marriage because first, ``(You`ve) got to have adventures and lovers, got to fall down a few rat holes and eat a few worms.``

What a line. What a happy home the Shapiros must have.

What they lack, however, is any tenderness, imagination or understanding. They have loaded on so much that is not genuine that they strangle the story. Under such a burden, the cast is barely able to move. Lindsay Frost has the icy good looks for Paige, a matron in the making, and Grant Show makes a nicely muscled Michael, but neither can act. As Ben, Steven Weber is particularly dopey looking, and the rest of the gang is suitably stiff. Ronny Cox, the only adult to speak of in the cast, is relatively unabrasive.

What the Shapiros, writers and executive producers, have done is create a world of cardboard characters. When lives collide there are no sparks, only a hollow sound.

And when it is all over there are so many matters left unresolved that one worries that NBC is so taken with the Shapiros that they might be considering this as a possible series. If that is the case, this series will have the potential to make ``Dynasty`` look like a Shakespearean drama.

Stella Adler, fiery and forceful, finishes off the remarkable three-part season opening of ``American Masters.``

Following ``Broadway Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theater`` and

``Harold Clurman: A Life of Theater,`` ``Stella Adler: Awake and Dream!``

(9 p.m. Monday, WTTW-Ch. 11) is a fascinating look at one of the most influential acting teachers of this century.

This is the woman, called everything from angel to bully, who taught acting skill to Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Warren Beatty and hundreds less notable.

One gets not only a full blast of her teaching skills in a number of class sessions but also learns of her fascinating past. For the casual viewer this portion should be the most interesting, as it details life as the daughter of ``the great Adler,`` the leading light of Yiddish theater.

That helps one understand her fiery personality, fully aflame as she dresses down a young actor with a smart mouth and a silly outfit. At this moment one gets a very sure sense of the arresting complexities of this woman who, as one student puts it, ``gives us the courage to fail.``